


the deep blue sea

by setgo



Series: as seen on tv [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, Gen, Happy Ending, Idiots in Inaba AU, Light Video Game Mechanics, M/M, Persona 5 Protagonist is from Inaba, Phantom Thief Suzui Shiho, Post-Canon, Recovery, facing your true self is cheaper than therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24531151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setgo/pseuds/setgo
Summary: Through the drawn curtains Akira could see the faint flickering of starlight on the empty streets of Inaba; so unlike Tokyo, where every inch was crawling with movement every minute, day and night. This town was a desolate wasteland in comparison to the vibrant streets he called home.The resurgence of an urban legend grabs the attention of the former leader of the Phantom Thieves. Akira and Shiho delve into another world, seeking to investigate the mysterious figure on the TV screen with a familiar face.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira & Suzui Shiho, background Suzui Shiho/Takamaki Ann
Series: as seen on tv [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774411
Comments: 81
Kudos: 188





	1. initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira catches a glimpse of a long-completed TV show.

The clock strikes midnight.

In the sea of static, something stirs.

* * *

Akira hadn't meant to stay up so late.

Sure, he _had_ put off his homework for too long in favor of _literally anything else,_ so, left with four classes' worth of work to do in a single night, what was he supposed to do? Wake up early and do it in the morning? Not put himself into this situation in the first place? The very idea was laughable.

Well, that's what he had told Morgana. With all the judgement he could muster, the not-cat had slunk into bed without him, leaving Akira alone to finish his work.

As the night crept forward, Akira could feel his burning eyelids drifting closer and closer to sleep. The steady drumming of the rain didn't help the matter - a slow thrum of static that drifted him closer and closer to sleep.

_...Static?_

A long, low buzz began its hum, creeping over the carpet like a long shadow and casting erratic, flickering rays of artificial light throughout the living room. Akira was frozen - _no, he wasn't,_ eyes transfixed upon the screen with every synapse in his body yelling _stay, go, stay, go -_

And yet, all he could wonder was -

_I didn't turn the TV on, did I?_

Amongst the static, a figure emerged, convulsing across the screen with the now-screaming wave of black and white growing louder, and louder, and _louder_ until it was a roar of an oncoming storm howling in agony-

 _Stay, go, stay, go, stay, go, go,_ **_GO -_ **

Then, as soon as it started, it was gone.

The living room was silent, leaving Akira stranded in the now pitch black room with nothing but his unfinished homework and a burning pit in his stomach, all reflected dimly against the blank television screen.

Everything exactly the same as before.

Had it been a prank? Futaba had shown him how laughably easy it was to hack into public broadcasting, but then again. He hadn't turned it on in the first place.

It seemed familiar, uncomfortably so. A sour memory at the tip of his tongue. Then again, that's how Inaba felt a lot of these days.

* * *

The rain hadn't let up even by morning, which was doing _wonders_ for Akira's mood. He had woken up a scant ten minutes before school started thanks to Mona's yelling, barely had time to get dressed and dart to class, all while being pelted by the rain.

He had forgotten an umbrella as well. At least the morning dash had slightly woken him up from his brief and disturbed sleep.

Yasogami High was…

It was a school, that much was for certain. Not much had changed in the year he'd been gone, apart from more wary stares as he ghosted through the hallways. So, not all that different from Shujin either, minus Ryuji or Ann or Makoto or Haru or -

Well.

He shook his head, casting rain droplets onto the hallways as he stepped into the classroom just as the first bell rang. His homeroom teacher looked up from the roll call, up at his sopping hair, then back at the roll call without a word. 

Not long after settling into his seat, casting ripples of uneasy glances throughout the class, Akira felt a tap at the back of his shoulder and turned around.

"What took you so long?" Shiho asked. Akira numbly noted that her own umbrella was neatly propped up against her desk.

He sighed, "...Woke up late."

"I texted you like three times!"

Akira stared, pulling out his phone from his pocket to come face to face with a blank screen. His reflection against the black mirror was unmercifully terrible, heavy bags under his eyes and a bedhead that even he couldn't claim was "stylishly unkempt." Tapping on the screen did nothing to wake it up.

"...Do you have a charger?"

* * *

"Did you see that weird program on TV last night?"

"I don't really watch TV," Shiho took a nonchalant bite of melon bread. The two sat in the band room, which, sure, was "against the rules" and "supposed to be locked," but Akira wasn't about to let half a year of thieving go to waste, "Why, was it cool?"

Akira explained his experience in the most sane-sounding way he could and, thankfully, Shiho didn't seem too shocked. Maybe his and the Thieves' explanation had desensitized her to _"weird Meta-shit,"_ as Ryuji had so eloquently coined.

Shiho furrowed her brow, "That's... really creepy. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"No, I was definitely awake. I thought it'd just be a prank, but it sort of seems familiar? I think I heard about something like that a few years ago, or something."

Akira rubbed the back of his neck, stretching his memory as far as he could. Static on the TV, a mysterious figure at midnight, _it all seemed so..._

"...the Midnight Channel." He realized.

"The what now?"

"It was an urban legend back when I was in middle school."

Akira had only been eleven when the Midnight Channel was "a thing." The high schoolers were talking about it, which made it cool to middle schoolers, which meant Akira heard what ran through the rumor mill. At midnight on rainy days (or was it foggy days? There had been a lot of fog back then), if you looked at a TV screen, you'd see your soulmate on the screen.

Akira had never tried it, mostly because he couldn't stay up that long back then, but also because he hadn't particularly cared. 

"So your soulmate is an inflatable air dancer? I better tell Ryuji the bad news." Shiho brushed a crumb off her sweater and pulled a second, slightly more squished melon bread from her backpack along with a carton of banana milk.

"He'll be heartbroken for sure, but I can't live without my favorite used car mascot. It's true love."

Shiho snorted, banana milk spattering against the chairs and Morgana.

"My fur!" Mona leaped from said spot and strutted next to Akira, "...So, it was just some prank about an old rumor? That's weird."

Shiho tilted forward in her chair, "What'd Mona say?"

"That it'd be a weird joke," Akira paused, "I'm gonna try it again."  
"What?!" Shiho and Morgana chorused.

"It _might_ have just been a prank, but something feels strange, _" Uncomfortably so,_ "You should come with me so I have proof."

"I am _not_ gonna get suckered into your bad habits, Akira."

" _I_ don't have bad sleeping habits, you do!" _Mona bullies me into bed by nine._

"Fine. I'll tell my mom, but you're helping me with history." Shiho acquiesced, "Oh, and you're making dinner."

Akira sighed half-heartedly, "I was going to do that anyway."

* * *

"Wanna go to Junes?" Shiho bounced up next to him as Akira made his way to the school's exit.

His Tokyo savings were slowly dwindling as the days drifted by. It turned out that in a town like Inaba, anything worthwhile cost _money._ Money that Akira didn't have, especially since most shop owners wouldn't even look at the delinquent kid without telling him to turn out his pockets. _Not hiring, Kurusu._

"We always go to Junes, though."

"Come on, let's just get some snacks. Like a real stakeout!"

"Is that how stakeouts work?"

"Dunno, never been on one," Shiho grinned, beckoning Akira to the streets. Crowds of gray and white-clad students passed by, all chattering and gossiping as they walked to their own next destination. 

**ORACLE**

I FINALLY GOT HER

SSR FESTIVAL DARAEN

**JOKER**

congrats on your shiny new jpg

**ORACLE**

she's a png but thank you

it's been like five hours since i sent that what took u so long

**JOKER**

I have school

**ORACLE**

nerddddddd

what are u gonna do homework?? huh?? go do some homework?

**JOKER**

actually I'm going to junes now

**ORACLE**

oh big city life. harassing retail employees

**JOKER**

crime never sleeps

**ORACLE**

crime gets bullied to going to bed at 9pm by a cat

**JOKER**

Mona says he isn't a cat

**ORACLE**

=( ＾｀A´＾）＜ 猫じゃねぇぜ！！ー

Junes was, predictably, uncrowded on a Wednesday afternoon. While it would have normally been a quick affair to shove a bunch of favorite snacks into a basket and clear out, Akira and Shiho were no normal customers. They were bored, _teenage_ customers, and just existing in a Junes was enough to quell that boredom, if only for a little while.

It usually worked, too, but either the sorry weather or the pervading, tingling _wrongness_ in the air that followed like a thunderstorm had dampened their moods. Shiho picked at her mitarashi dango with little enthusiasm while Akira fiddled with the tip of his soda straw. The plastic shopping bag of chips and chocolate biscuits sat to his side along with a package egg snack at Morgana's insistence after Akira refused salmon.

"So, this TV thing…" Shiho started, giving up entirely on finishing her food.  
"I was doing my homework," Shiho gave a doubtful eye raise that Akira ignored, "when the TV turned on by itself. And there was someone on it, but I couldn't see their face."

He fails to mention the moaning, or the ever-present, all-consuming feeling of wrongness that had filled the air and seemed to trail after him even now. Someone - or something was _watching him._

Shiho took another bite, not noticing Akira's eyes briefly flicking from side to side, "Well, yeah, I got that. But are you sure it wasn't just, like, Mona sitting on the remote?"  
"Hey!" Mona said.

"He takes offense to that. But yes, I'm sure nobody touched the remote."

If it weren't for the fact they were in the real world, Akira could have chalked it up to the Palace owner's security level rising up, but, no, he was in Junes. In the most boring town in the world. But a year's training didn't just go away, and they _were_ investigating an unusual occurrence, so maybe - _maybe something was definitely watching him._ The back of Akira's neck prickled in anticipation, it was coming closer, no mistaking it now. Morgana yowled in anticipation, Akira twisting as the figure leapt through the air at alarming speeds and -

Grabbed his sleeve.

Akira raised his arm in response, ready to push away whatever shadow had attacked him, only to come face to face with a blue-eyed, blond haired kid with a beaming smile on his face.

"Wow! You smell really weird!" Teddie Hanamura exclaimed without a shred of shame.

"Uh," the former leader of the Phantom Thieves responded, shoulders taut as he stared down at the intruder.  
"Ted! C'mon, you can't say stuff like that!" Another familiar voice calling out.

The manager, another Hanamura, Akira recognized, emerged from behind a shopping cart full of unstocked soup cans, bedraggled and twice as embarrassed for Ted's utter shamelessness.

He gently smacked the blond kid on the shoulder, grabbing Teddie by the shoulders and beginning to pull.

"Ugh, sorry. You know how he is,"

"But it's true!" The kid protested, still letting himself be pulled away like a wet sack in the manager's arms.

"What is with that guy?" Shiho leaned over from her seat to get a better view of the scrambling blond.  
"I think he's the manager's cousin from America - weird guy. I saw him dump a whole box of topsicles into his backpack once."

"The whole box?"

"Unwrapped."

* * *

Akira's parents weren't home very often. Business trips and busywork left the house quieter than Akira would've liked, not that he would ever admit it to anyone.

His mom had been home when he finally returned from his time in Tokyo, utterly bewildered at the van full of rowdy teens and their brand new housecat, but was _mostly_ relieved at his coming home safe. At least, as far as he could tell. She hadn't asked too many questions, so that was how Akira reciprocated.

She'd left a couple days after for another business trip, and Akira had begun to relearn the merits of having a whole house for himself, like eating whatever he wanted whenever, or playing music without headphones, or inviting a friend over to loudly investigate a possibly haunted TV.

Shiho plopped down across from Akira, sticking her feet under the warming kotatsu while spilling some of her popcorn against the blanket. The room was filled with the leftover smell of their curry dinner, every light switched on at Mona's insistence.

Akira's eyes flicked over to his phone. _Only 10:30._

"Wanna see a movie or something?"

"We have homework, you know." Akira listlessly gestured to said homework.

She sighed and sunk deeper under the blanket, "But that doesn't mean I actually _want_ to do it. What does Mrs. Kashiwagi get assigning us so much reading?"

"Maybe the satisfaction of knowing we wasted our time is the source of her power," Akira offered. Shiho nodded in agreement, opening the textbook with a disdainful sigh.

About thirty minutes in, Akira was distracted by a funny cat video, which spiralled into an hour long rabbithole of the pair showing the other their phones. 

Akira's notifications buzzed him back to attention, the eye-searing blue light informed him that it was now 11:27.

**SKULL**

whatre u up to

"Who's that?"

"Ryuji," Akira replied, picking up his phone.

**JOKER**

Homework with Shiho

**SKULL**

wish i could study w/ you guys... dont get this calc crap at all

whats a integral even 4???

**JOKER**

like a derivative but the other way

**SKULL**

uhhhhhh

**JOKER**

We're not having much luck with history either

You might be able to ask Makoto

**SKULL**

nah dude... shes super busy rn. dont wanna bother her

**JOKER**

But we are on an investigation

**SKULL**

???

**JOKER**

On rainy nights in the small town of yasoinaba… if you gaze into the television as the clock strikes midnight

You may come dace to face with your soulmate.

**SKULL**

dace to face

**JOKER**

Thanks

**SKULL**

ur seriously investigating an urban legend

dude

**JOKER**

I cannot even begin to describe how boring it is here

The highlight of my day was someone telling me i smelled weird

**SKULL**

have u tried showering

**JOKER**

Your support is deeply appreciated

**SKULL**

but 4 real why

**JOKER**

Honestly? That guy is just weird

Norwegian or something

**SKULL**

gl with that

well i better get back 2 studying seeya

"How is he?" Shiho perked up.

"Same as us. Homework."

Shiho groaned, flopping back into the kotatsu and cocooning herself in the blankets, "How much longer until midnight?"

Akira checked his phone. 11:58.

"Not too much longer."

It was too late to do any homework now, wasn't it? Through the drawn curtains Akira could see the faint flickering of starlight on the empty streets. So unlike Tokyo, where every inch was crawling with movement every minute of the day. Inaba was a desolate wasteland in comparison to the vibrant streets Akira called home.

11:59.

The ticking clock on the kitchen table served as a pulsing reminder of the rapidly growing pit of nerves in his stomach. The flat-screen TV, an all-encompassing void in the dimly lit room, towered above them.

This had seemed like a good idea just a few hours ago. But, then again, it was probably nothing.

_Five._

But, if it wasn't…

_Four._

What was he afraid of?

_Three._

Or, maybe...

_Two._

Was it even fear at all?

_One._

The TV clicked on.

Static wrestled against the screen accompanied by the pounding of rain against the roof. A shadowy figure stood perfectly still in the center of the screen, hands shaking, back arched forwards. A low murmur emanated from the television, too quiet to be decipherable but unmistakably desperate.

Their face, backlit by a staining, rotten yellow, was impossible to make out. He could make out a silhouette, at least: ripped clothes and messy hair, and, amidst the darkness.

A pair of shimmering, yellow eyes.

"Holy _shit!_ " Shiho edged backwards, eyes wide, "Akira, are you seeing this?"

He stood up with a slow step forward.

In a weird way it felt familiar, felt like a frozen Shibuya crosswalk and a mysterious gasp of flame in the crowd in the shape of something more. A voice calling out: _this is where you're supposed to be._

He beckoned himself closer, ever closer to the static void.

He reached his hand out.

And, then -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> html wants me dead
> 
> This is a slight continuation of adjustment, my other Idiots in Inaba fic. You don't need to read it to know what's going on, but there'll be a couple references to it later on. Basically what happened was that Lavenza visited the Yasogami Cultural Fair with Akira and Shiho, then gave Shiho an arcana card (Adjustment.)
> 
> Please leave a comment if you've enjoyed thus far, I've been throwing this idea in my head around for a long time and am excited to finally kick it into gear! Come find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/arisatotxt) or on[tumblr](https://setgo.tumblr.com).


	2. split

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An exploration of the backside of the TV.

Really, with last year's events, Akira shouldn't have been so shocked. Personifications of the soul, a catlike embodiment of human hope, travelling to a parallel world with a phone app, what was one more batshit thing to add to the pile?

But _speculating_ and _seeing_ were two entirely different things, and seeing his arm sucked through the screen was something entirely else. It wasn't like a person pulling his arm, it was something deep and inherent, like the pull of the tide, the beach cleared away before a breaking storm. The screen rippled like a pebble in a lake, casting black and white spirals across the display.

"What the hell?!" Shiho cried.

Akira felt a tug on his leg, followed by another away from the TV, but the pull on his arm was stronger, _far_ stronger, and suddenly Akira felt himself being thrust forward, falling, falling -

"Joker!"

* * *

White and black. Black and white. Endless repetition as Akira fell deeper. He could feel his soul trembling with anticipation as he continued his descent.

_The world is watching you, Trickster._

A bulging red eye, veiny and contemptuous, opened up in the monochromatic mist. Its pupil staring endlessly and directly into Joker, far beyond and yet splitting directly through his chest.

_We wonder what move you will make._

The clap of a book, the slash of a blade.

He stopped falling.

* * *

Akira hit the ground like he fell asleep, slowly and then all at once.

He rubbed his forehead, wincing at the ungraceful blow to alleviate his now pounding headache. Salt and linoleum filled his thankfully-not-broken nose along with a familiar weight in Akira's chest. The fall had only been _slightly_ cushioned by his mask.

Wait.

_His mask?_

Joker felt the click of his heels against a linoleum floor, the swish of a long tailcoat, a familiar weight resting on the brim of his nose.  
He fiddled with the red leather and shifted his weight back and forth as he readjusted to the outfit, settling back onto him like a well-worn suit of armor, the pressure of his Personas settling into the back of the mind, as if reawakening from a half-sleep. Dormant, all until...

Well, until he had tumbled head over heels into wherever this place was. It still held that feeling of familiarity, both in the way the cognitive world did and in its scenery, he suddenly realized.

A classroom decked out in rusting chairs and dewey wooden desks, barren of any signs of life. The lights were off, the room vacant, and something felt _off_ in the air. A faint echo behind the darkened windows, the whistling of wind and the smell of the ocean.

Yes, as Joker surveyed the room, he recognized _exactly_ where he was.

Completely empty and looking worse for wear, he was unmistakably inside a Shujin Academy classroom.

It was too gray.

Two sharp _cracks!_ sounded behind Joker. He whipped around, reaching for a weapon at his side that wasn't there.

"Joker!"

"Akira?!"

Akira sighed, relaxing his stance at the sight of Shiho and Mona, (not in his cat form! Not that it was all that surprising, considering.)

Shiho's eyes were wide in confusion, looking from the ceiling, to the classroom, to the closed windows, then to Joker himself, "Akira, what's going on? Where are we -"

He pressed one finger against his lips, "Joker. We should be using codenames, here."

"Uh... alright. Joker, then," Shiho fumbled over the codename, then looked down, "Hey, is - _what the hell is that?!"_

"Hey! What do you mean?! It's me, Morgana, obviously!" Mona huffed indignantly.

Shiho's eyes bugged out, "You're _serious_?"

"We did tell you he looked different in…" _Was_ this the Metaverse? It certainly felt like it, but almost like Akira had returned home to find everything shifted two inches to the left, "in the cognitive world."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't tell me he was a mascot character!" Shiho kneeled down, poking Mona's cheek with one finger. His cheek wobbled.

"Would you stop that?! I'm not a toy, you know!"

"And you really do talk!"

"Don't act so surprised!"

"Mona, calm down. We need to figure out what's going on," The world might not be the Metaverse, exactly, but with the thrum of his Personas and the comforting weight of his mask, Joker settled back into his role, "Like where we are."

"This is Shujin, but how? The Metaverse shouldn't exist anymore, and distortions only span the real-life area." Mona huffed, "This doesn't make _any_ sense."

 _Does it ever?_ "I don't have any weapons." Akira said, "Our first priority is getting out of here."

Arsene burnt a comforting heat in Akira's chest, a charmed cackle conducting the whispers of his other Personas, so he had _him,_ at least, "Let's get an idea of the layout to find an exit. Mona, you're on Navigation."

"Got it!"

"And what should I do?" Shiho pointed at herself.

Joker bit his lip. Having a third member to fight would be useful, to be sure, but there was nothing in the classroom Shiho could feasibly use as a weapon, so that just left...

"Stay in the back. We'll do the fighting."

Shiho's face fell, "...Right."

Joker breathed in and closed his eyes. It had been a while since had used the skill to this extent, but he'd had enough practice sneaking around stores and school that he should be able to tell -

He opened his third eye. There was something lingering at the surface, vague impressions of what almost felt like shadows. Shifting red and black echoes too faint to form any particular form behind the doors, but nothing dangerous. Or corporeal.

"Something's weird about this place," Shiho said.

"...Well, yeah."

"I don't mean that way!" She hissed back, "I mean, look at the pillars. They're… weird." Shiho pointed up, and as Joker followed her hand, he saw it too. Instead of the minimalist steel beams, marble pillars held up the ceilings. They were, maybe at some point in cognitive history, ornate, but now they were stained with ocean spray and sent long, dangerous cracks branching across the foundation in thin webs. A bizarre mish-mash of styles too subtle to be immediately realized, but increasingly obvious the more he looked.

And that wasn't all. The corridors stretched in odd ways - slightly too long or too tilted to quite match up with the Shujin of his memories. Doors missing, the ones that remained all vacant and paralyzingly dark. Engravings in crumbling marble surrounding the shuttered windows with blocky, faded silhouettes of what once must have been figures. Beneath the stairs, the grimy archway was supported by two indented pillars.

"I think they're _ironic,_ " Joker replied. 

"What?" Shiho looked back down.

"I dunno, Fox said something about Roman columns once."

"...I don't think that's right."

They slunk through the hallway, checking corners and doorways without any of the telltale signs of a shadow even in sight. Shiho kept casting glances between Mona and Joker, bouncing with nervous energy from the unfamiliar world that stank of sea-salt and something rotten.

"Any ideas for the exit?"

"It's the same as Shujin, as far as I can tell."

"Then let's try finding an exit." They were somewhere near the back of the school, close to the gym's entrance by the looks of things. The three crept down the narrow corridors, Shiho eyeing the torn corners of posters advertising, at first glance, clubs and school events. But as they passed the third yellowing poster warning to _keep your eyes closed!_ in a crooked, thin script, Joker felt a shiver run down his spine. 

"This place is so creepy… are all of those 'Palace' things like this?" Shiho rubbed her arms, pulling the thin Yasogami jacket closer around her.

"This is definitely the quietest one… and the most run-down," Joker replied. His footsteps echoed with a looming _clack, clack, clack_ down the hall, "but we should still keep an eye out for -" 

"Akira, watch out!" Shiho grabbed Joker's arm, pulling him backwards with surprising ease.

"There was a rock," she replied, pointing down at their feet and to apile of jagged white pebbles that trailed out from their left, "you might have tripped."

"Oh. Thanks," Joker looked to his left towards the source of the pile and, then, upwards. Further upwards than what seemed possible for the claustrophobic ceiling. A once-massive archway towered above them in three, looming swoops, too tall for the ceiling it supposedly held up. Half of the gate lay in precarious heaps on the floor, with a massive gap through its top at a dilapidated mural now too worn to be decipherable.

"Is that the _gym?"_ Shiho craned her neck upwards to catch a glimpse of beyond the debris.

"...Let's not go in there."

"Agreed."

"So…" Shiho started as Akira checked another corner, "...what's the whole outfit supposed to be?" She gestured towards said outfit.

"It's a manifestation of what Joker thinks rebellion looks like!" Mona explained. Joker ducked behind a barnacle-encrusted wall, peeking down the stairs before beckoning the two to follow.

"Sure, but… why?"

"I stopped asking a while ago," Joker hadn't seen a single shadow, the coast remaining unnervingly clear. Even with his third eye, only faint silhouettes would flicker in and out, skirting away from him as they passed by. He couldn't tell if that was good or a very, _very_ bad.

"Ah! Look!" Shiho's eyes lit up. She raced past Joker, hopping past a waterlogged marble tile and to a dull blue vending machine leaning crookedly against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Mona asked.

Shiho sighed, "...I thought it might have something useful."

The glass was fogged with disuse and barnacles, and in the few sections not covered in gray brine Joker could see the barren, rusty hooks.

"C'mon, let's find that exit," Shiho beckoned.

The rest of the hallway was similarly desolate, and the next as they rounded the corner was the same. Every time Joker opened his third eye, that too revealed flickering silhouettes at the edge of his vision that faded away in seconds, like diluted watercolors or -

Well, shadows.

 _This_ Shujin and the real one, at least, shared a common exit. Dusty gray light filtered through the space where the doors would have been and the stench of salt grew ever-stronger, promising an escape. The street-side opening (or whatever it was going to be) was in the same sorry state as the rest of the school, but no archway rubble barred their exit so they slipped by.

The sky was a heavy gray, one that threatened to split apart and fling heavy rain down upon them at any second yet, at the same time, unnervingly still. Down the stone steps was the chipping brick walls and the open gate. The ground cut off in a neat plateau as soon as it reached the end of Shujin's gates. A deep drop into the watery abyss below that Joker had exactly _zero_ interest in measuring.

Shiho whispered, "No way… is this… Mementos?"

"It's…" Akira shook his head, squinting into the mist, "no, it's not."

And, on the horizon, Joker stared beyond to nothing but the ocean. Ocean, and the faint peak of more gray pillars jutting out from beneath the surface.

"It's something else."

"Joker! Over here!"

While he and Shiho had been staring at the sea, Mona had already hopped down the stairs and to the gates. He pointed a stubby paw towards a rickety bridge that stretched from the walls and into the horizon. It was attached with a thick rope knotted to the open ribbing of the gate, swinging gently in winds.

"Um," Shiho tapped the wooden planks with the tip of her shoe, watching it rattle back and forth, "Are you sure this is a good idea? This bridge looks sort of… unsteady." 

It was, all in all, not a very safe bridge. But it _was_ their best bet.

"Well. Hm." Joker looked down, "...After you, Mona."

The seas gave an unhelpful burble.

"What?!" Mona shrieked, backing a few feet away from the gates, "no way! I am not going on that!"

"You're the lightest one here, it just makes sense."

"Don't you know cats don't like water!"

"But I thought you weren't a cat."

"That's - it's - I'm _not_ -" Mona sputtered and huffed, spinning to march towards the bridge. After a first, cautious, step, he continued forward and gave an annoyed nod back at the rest of the team.

"You're the best, Mona!" Joker called after him and stepped onto the bridge. The wood beneath wobbled, but blessedly remained intact. Shiho followed after with the same trepidation, eyes fixated at the peeking, fallen columns.

The white mist that filled the horizon enveloped them the longed they walked, which must mean they were getting _somewhere._ What that _somewhere_ was an entirely different story.

_We'll cross that bridge when we get to it._

At some point, the wooden planks gave way to cold, firm iron grating like a catwalk. The click of Joker's heels echoed through the fine mist, stretching further and further down. 

"See anything, Joker?" Mona asked. His paws made a soft _pat pat pat_ against the metal.

"Not yet," Joker replied. The mist itself was a fine red cloud against his vision, slightly obscuring his third eye as a vague shape coalesced in the distance, "but I think there's something up there."

Amidst the mist, a blindingly red structure emerged. Joker winced at the sudden light, blinking his third eye away, but the red was still there. The form emerged from the mist as a geometric, impossible stage. Or, it _looked_ like a stage. Maybe it was a construction site - or just a very abstract art piece.

Shiho lifted one arm to shield her eyes from the blinding lights, "You know, I've just about had it with giant spooky structures."

"Tell me about it."

The metal platform that hung from the ceiling along with unsteady stage lights, all pointed towards the center in red, green, and blue. Beneath the metal platform was more swirling mists, the bottom four steel beams stretching and swallowed by the fog.

Red with a black checkerboard pattern, along with a five-pointed star decorating the floor. Black silhouettes surrounded a massive stack of antique televisions. 

"I don't know exactly, but I'm getting a feeling from those!" Mona pointed one stubby arm at the stack. Each TV was exactly the same, red rimmed and old-fashioned, with the top antenna poking out like crooked butterfly wings.

"Hey, isn't that Junes?" Shiho asked.

Near the bottom of the heap, one of the TVs remained on, though it was so dark it was hard to tell it first. From this side of the screen, the trio could see the familiar electronics department that Akira and Shiho frequented to quell their boredom, unlit and empty, "and, look, that's the Amagi Inn!" Another TV, halfway up the pile, displayed a cramped storage room with a rice paper door slightly ajar, letting a faint light leak across the screen.

"And - that's my house," Joker pointed a gloved finger at a TV on the top of the pile. The same design as the others, but with a bright glossy decal stuck to the side. A flaming black mask beneath a top hat promising to _Take Your Heart._

Joker stared at the sticker, briefly lifting his hand upwards to touch his own mask before pushing the thought aside.

"...C'mon, this might be our exit." He extended a gloved hand to Shiho, who nodded before picking up Mona. He pressed a finger against the screen, watching it ripple outwards as Shiho clutched onto his arm -

and fell through, once more.

* * *

Being flung _upwards_ sent a woozy chill through his spine, and the black-and-white repetition was no less headache inducing than it had been - however long ago it had been.

Shiho's tight grasp on his arm, painful as it was, was a firm reminder of reality - 

At least until he fell onto the floor for the second time that night. The three collapsed in a painful heap, Mona tumbling down Shiho's back and onto the ground with all four paws.

"... _Ow_."

"Could you get off me?" Akira tried to ask, which came out more as " _mmfh geddofm?,"_ with his (now maskless) face pressed onto the carpet. It was still raining, he noticed, as Shiho peeled away from the stack. Pelting the roof and windows with a rattling thrum.

"Hey… any chance that was just a weird dream?" Shiho, limbs twisted amidst the blankets like an exhausted pretzel, adjusted her pose to stare blankly at the now inert television screen. 

"No good." Akira mumbled, face stilled pressed against the floor.

Mona poked one paw against Akira's cheek, "We'll figure it out tomorrow morning. It's late now, you should sleep."

Shiho's eyes widened, "Mona!"

"What?"

"I can understand you!"

Akira flopped his hand to his phone, wincing as the blue light pounded his eyes with the time.

_4 AM._

"I guess it's a good thing I said I was staying over."

The stench of sea salt clung to his clothes, but he was too tired to even want to change out of it. Akira slumped deeper into the blankets, hoping the swaths of fabric would protect him from the oncoming hell day that would arrive once school started.

* * *

(It did not.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahah wow i sure wonder whose dungeon this is. (looks up at the tags)
> 
> (regarding the pillars. akira does not know anything about the different kind of GREEK columns. there are three types - doric, ionic, and corinthian.)
> 
> anyway, please leave a comment if you enjoyed! next time, our intrepid idiots devise a plan, or something resembling one.


	3. amplification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiho and Akira concoct and execute something resembling a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some sensitive content, trigger warnings and relevant sentences will be here.
> 
> trigger warnings:  
> a mention of past suicide idealization and implications of past sexual assault, starting from "Don't try and pretend!" and ending at "She was better, she had to be."

Akira _would_ have liked to ask Lavenza and Igor what exactly was going on, but considering the Velvet Room was presumably still in Tokyo, he was stuck hypothesizing on what exactly the Metaverse and the other-Shujin was doing in his TV.

So far his theories were:

  1. Nothing



All in all, a bad start.

Shiho had gone ahead a few hours before Akira had even woken up, texting him she had needed to change her clothes and get the rest of her school supplies and _something else_ that he hadn't prodded into, leaving him to his morning commute to Yasogami alone. Alone, and with a still slightly damp uniform.

"So it felt like the Metaverse but... wasn't the Metaverse?"

"I'm sure of it!" Morgana sunk deeper into Akira's bag, probably scrunching up his notebook in the process. Organizing his supplies was a far flung fantasy Akira had abandoned long ago thanks to Mona's constant shuffling, along with hair-free clothing, "It felt different, but it was definitely a world of cognition. Just not like Mementos and the Palaces."

"Sort of getting mixed signals here, Mona."

"It's hard to explain, okay! It's like… the difference between saltwater and freshwater. They're both water, but they have different properties."

Akira tilted his head, "Cognitive water?"

"Ugh," Mona sighed, pawing at Akira's bag and causing his supplies to spread even further, "That's not what I mean and you know it."

Across the street, a student from his class gazed up from her phone and cast him a confused look.

Akira coughed, pulling his phone from his pocket and pressing it to his ear, "We should check it out again tonight. Having a fragment of the Metaverse or whatever is dangerous."

"Right," Mona nodded.

His phone, still warmed from his pocket, pressed against his face while he murmured half-baked plans to Morgana while his own thoughts spun even faster. And, beneath it all, all the disarray and scrambled ideas, was the undeniable burn of...

Excitement.

**SHIHO**

okay so i got questions. a lot of them

**AKIRA**

We're in class

**SHIHO**

oh noooo what if we don't pay attention in class

i'd hate it if mr phantom thief was caught using his phone

**AKIRA**

There's a lot of stuff to explain

let's just talk during lunch

**SHIHO**

coward!

* * *

"...No?"

"Akira. I'm not letting you go into a hell dimension of our old school by yourself. That's stupid. You're stupid."

"I wasn't going to go in there alone," Akira lied.

"Uh, yeah you were," Shiho crossed her arms as the pair leaned against the windows of the gym. It was an impressive feat, considering she had a giant sports bag tossed against one of her shoulders, "I bet you have knives in your bag or something."

Instinctively, Akira shuffled his bag with one hand to cover up the knife and handful of lockpicks he had from the previous year with his notebook. Usually Mona's presence was enough to ward off any attention (a cat in a bag somehow garnered more attention than an entire arsenal of thieves' tools, but said cat was currently curled up at the feet of the bleachers.)

"I don't even know why you have those. The TV is _in your house."_

"Okay, okay, I get it. We should contact the rest of the thieves and wait for them to arrive."

"What? Are you kidding me, _obviously_ we should go in as soon as we can," Shiho struggled with her gym bag, tugging out a hammer from its depths, "Look! I even brought a weapon!"

Akira stared down at the hardware-grade, a sense of deja vu washing over him, "...Have you been carrying that around all day?"

"Have you been carrying around _knives_ all day?" She retorted.

"... _Fine_ , you can come as well," He acquiesced, "But be extra careful. We literally have no idea what this place is."

"I thought you said it was this 'Metaverse' thing?"

"Well…" Akira stalled, "Sort of? It might be the Metaverse, but I'm not sure and Mona's not being helpful -" ("Hey!" Mona yowled.) "- so we're back at the beginning."

"Then… we'll just need to figure it out," Shiho held up a finger and began to pace around the room, "one: when it's rainy, things show up on the TV," behind her, the black-and-white glossy printouts of grainy old European composers stared down at them with a classical disdain lasting through the centuries.

"Like the Midnight Channel."

"Right, like that thing. For some reason Two: it's Shujin. But also that red construction site with all those TVs."

Akira thought back to the tower of antique televisions, the dimming views of the spots around Inaba and the lone, too-fresh sticker slapped to the side of _his_ house's TV. _Take Your Heart._

"...I have a theory. It's definitely a world of cognition, since I have my Personas and Mona has his Metaverse form. So, maybe," Akira offered, "it's an offshoot that resurfaced after Mementos disappeared that followed me here."

Shiho raised one eyebrow, "Followed you? Why?"

"I _am_ the leader of the Phantom Thieves, after all." He flashed a grin, which Shiho promptly ignored.

"Okay, maybe it's a cognitive fanboy that just really wants an autograph."

"It's not totally out of the question," Mona added, "...not the fanboy part, that's dumb. If it's a fragment of Mementos, maybe it wanted to find something familiar? And Mementos had different paths in it, so this other-Shujin could be one of those paths."

"...I don't get it."

"It's just an idea, okay!"

Shiho sighed, plopping cross-legged into one of the foldout chairs, "We've got a lot of pieces, but nothing connecting them. The fact that it's Shujin… could make sense, considering there are two former Shujin students here, but why the TV? And what's it got to do that whole Midnight Channel rumor?"

 _And,_ he wondered, _who exactly was on that screen?_

* * *

Either every teacher at Yasogami had made a silent pact to make the rest of the day go _as slowly as humanly possible,_ or the looming promise of the Metaverse return was driving him crazy. No matter what, though, the second the day ended Akira and Shiho leapt out of their seats and made a beeline for the alternate dimension in Akira's TV. Two steps from Yasogami's gates, Mona shook free from the depths of Akira's bag and yowled.

"You don't have any healing items, dummies!" 

Shiho and Akira stopped in their tracks.

"Oh," Shiho said, then, "...healing items?

"Yeah we do, I have Takemedics at my house."

"Those are eight months old at _least_." Mona replied.

"Takemedic doesn't expire."

Shiho raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I don't really want to test that."

"Fine. There's a pharmacy on the way back to my house, we can stop there after school. But keep your head down, Mona." Akira wasn't sure the store had a policy of pets, and wasn't exactly willing to test Old Lady Shiroku's patience.

Akira had passed by Shiroku Store thousands of times in his life, but hadn't actually been inside for years, due to not _really_ needing old herbal medicines for any particular reason. His mother had engaged in the occasional herbal tea, though Akira had found the wheaty taste to be completely unappealing. Maybe because he had been young when he drank it, but also maybe because it sucked and tasted terrible.

He knew the old woman though, from countless festivals and stalls filled with shaved ice. She was the same as always, dark wispy hair pushed back and wrapped in a bright red bandana, wrinkled hands clasped together as she carefully surveyed his every move. She surveyed with a smiling unease as Akira meandered around the store and peered at the labels of concoctions lining the walls.

"Even if we didn't see any shadows last time, we should still be careful," He warned as Shiho poked through a box of brightly-colored omamoris.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Akira?" Old Lady Shiroku cut through their banter, voice tinged with a suspicion that made his hand twitch.

"Yeah, I'm looking for medicine."

Shiroku peered down at Akira, face still in a taut smile but showing the strains of doubt, "Medicine?" She echoed.

"For injuries."

"Injuries," she echoed, again.

"Yep."

Shiho, feeling the steadily growing silence from Shiroku's casual and impromptu interrogation, intervened, "I'm - I'm thinking about rejoining some sports teams, and Akira here thought you might have some medicine in case I get hurt while training!" Shiho put on her best _yes I am an innocent high school girl with no ulterior motives_ face and gazed up at the old woman, adjusting her footing to show off her new athletic sneakers.

After a second-long staredown, Shiroku's tense disbelief broke into a kind smile, "Ahh, I see! Yes, yes, we have some basic medicines over on that shelf, along with some bandages if you need them. Let me know if you need anything else, dearie."

"Thank you, ma'am! I really appreciate it," Shiho beamed back. The shelf that Shiroku had pointed to, lodged between two identical shelves, was stacked high with barely-marked bottles and green paper boxes.

"So, what is this supposed to be?" Shiho mumbled at Akira, pointing at lines and lines of colorful omamoris stacked in neat wooden boxes, "I've never seen a charm for this."

"For what?" He picked up one of the omamoris, this one a deep blue faintly, patterned with geometric butterflies. Down the middle, proudly embroidered with the accuracy only a mass produced object could have, was kanji praying to _go home._

"...Huh."

He reached back into the box.

Five minutes later, Akira emerged from Shiroku with three antibiotic gels, a couple of finely decorated beads that vaguely resembled Revival Beads, four fabric Goho-Ms, and a bottle of Quelorie Magic. Old Lady Shiroku had not completely shaken the suspicion from her face as she counted out the exact change and gingerly handed it back to Akira. Shiho huffed as they exited the store, eyeing the odd assortment of items in his arms.

"What do you need _beads_ for?"

"If I pass out."

"And the soda?"

"I'm thirsty," Akira popped open the bright blue cap as they exited to the streets.

**ORACLE**

sojiro b like "glad that damn cat is gone so i dont gotta clean his bowl" and then immediately ask how long till break starts

**JOKER**

is this the fabled "gap moe" ?

**ORACLE**

i

am gonna kill you if u ever say that again

**JOKER**

☆～～（ゝω・○）ﾉ

**ORACLE**

stop that

**JOKER**

Am i the cat or is mona

**ORACLE**

whats the difference

**JOKER**

I'm cuter

**ORACLE**

pls stop lying to urself

anyway send monapics

**JOKER**

[IMG_049.png]

**ORACLE**

tyyyyyy

whats that blue thing in the bag? a charm?

**JOKER**

We went shopping

* * *

The yellow fog of gingko leaves cast patchy light onto the concrete streets and an awkward, mid-afternoon glow across the living room floor. Shiho, Akira, and Mona encircled the Kurusu's massive (and probably expensive) flatscreen. Its blank screen betrayed no sign of the world underneath.

Shiho felt her trepidation wallow up inside her, a swarming pit she had been trying to quash all day that the two actual Phantom Thieves did not seem to share. Akira stared down at the screen, the glasses flashing with the light of the afternoon sun.

"So," Shiho said, "...after you?"

"Grab my arm, okay?"

Akira leaned forward, ripples emanating from the palm of his hand in even circles.

This descent was a little smoother, though Shiho couldn't tell if she was getting used to the monochromatic vertigo or if it was because she was going in feet-first this time. The ripples of static enveloped her like an invisible ocean, and somewhere along the way Shiho turned to face Akira and found a mask pressed against his face. Behind him his coattails flapped against the endless chamber, a black-and-red inkstain staining the skies being flung further and further down.

Once, Shiho had read that before a tsunami, the waves would recede, leaving an empty expanse of sand for just five minutes before the devastation _really_ arrived; if you saw the ocean pull back, you should run away as fast as you could and pray for higher ground.

Shiho wondered, just for a second, if she should run back, before she fell through.

Shiho squeezed his arm a little tighter, closing her eyes before they hit the ground -

* * *

\- with a slightly more dexterous _thud_ than before _._

Akira and his cat both landed on their feet, and Shiho would have cracked a joke if not for the fact her feet hurt like hell after landing. She shook them loose with the stretches ingrained like second nature, then shivered as a gaunt ocean breeze floated through the room.  
The room that upon closer inspection, Shiho realized wasn't _her_ old classroom. Instead it was Akira and Ann's, the one taught by Kawakami. Even the desk Shiho had popped next to every day was the same, though with a lot more wear and tear added on.

The massive abyss of the ocean stretched as far as the eye could see, reflecting the dreary gray that this world's sky plodded from up above. 

Joker adjusted the cuff of his sleeve. Behind his domino mask, Shiho saw a flicker of red as he scanned up and down the rooms. Somewhere along the way his bag had vanished, the items no doubt tucked into somewhere in his jacket. There were probably pockets in there or something, "Well. Here we are."

"Still creepy."

Right on cue, a low creak echoed through the hallway.

"...Still creepy," Akira agreed, eyes flicking up and across the room, and Shiho could swear the pupils of his eyes reflected a red that wasn't there, "Still no actual shadows, though it feels like there's something above us."

Shiho tightened her grip on the hammer, which suddenly felt more inadequate than ever against the backdrop of crumbling walls and the waterlogged chalkboard.

"And we're going _up_ to it?"

"I don't see why not."

"Joker, you can't be serious!" Mona glared up at Akira, "we should contact the rest of the thieves and wait for them, not just charge up into whatever's up there!"

"You agreed that we should investigate."

"I said _investigate,_ not provoke! What if whatever is causing this place is up there?!"

Akira tilted his head to the side, pointed edges of his mask glinting with the hilt of his knife, "...We'll just take a peek then."

Across the empty hall, Joker's eyes flashed red again and he nodded, gesturing for Shiho to follow him, "Coast is still clear, but there's definitely something at the top. Feels too weak to be a fully fledged shadow."

"If this is an ambush, we're walking right into it," Morgana added.

"We won't let whatever it is know we're here," Joker strode forward, "Come on, there are only a couple more stairs to go."

* * *

"...I could've sworn Shujin had a few _less_ floors than this," Morgana grumbled as he hopped up yet another set of staircases.

"Pretty sure it's well-established that Palaces don't follow real life. Remember Madarame?" 

"Ugh! That place makes my head spin just thinking about it!"

"You mean that art plagarist guy?" Shiho asked, leaning against what remained of the railing next to the stairs.

"Yep," Akira nodded, "His whole thing was a museum. There were these staircases that didn't obey the laws of physics, and the whole place was solid gold. Not to mention all the ugly paintings we had to jump through."

Shiho wrinkled her nose, "Sounds like a dick."

"It was pretty cool sneaking through lasers, though," Joker admitted with a grin, "we even came through a skylight. Very classy."

"You _would -"_ Shiho stopped. A rumble beneath her feet, snaking below the slick marble. Then, as quickly as it came, it vanished.

"What's wrong?" Akira asked.

"Did anyone else feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"There's - I could've _sworn_ I felt something underneath us."

"...I can't sense anything below," Akira said, "Just up there."

Shiho and Akira stared at each other, Akira furrowing for a moment, "Let's keep going up. I don't want to risk something beneath us."

"Agreed."

The trio slid through the somewhat familiar scenery once more, Joker pausing every so often to scrutinize the wreckage for... something. _Shadows,_ probably, whatever those are supposed to look like, or whatever might be hiding in the decomposing caricature of their old school. Up the stairs, past a mutilated window that peeked to the endless ocean that surrounded them; the gunmetal skies threatened to split apart at the seams, heavy with the weight of a promised rain. The only hint they were actually _going_ anywhere was the steadily growing distance between them and the ocean, though the thought wasn't so comforting as it was deeply concerning.

"How many floors has it been?" Shiho asked. Her legs were starting to feel like jelly from so much sneaking and crouching. The halls and stairs snaked around seemingly endlessly, a constant repetition mirroring the same three floors of Shujin.

"Ten, I think," Joker answered, "Eleven if you count the entrance."

"Jeez."

The stairway converged into a single room, dark and dingy with a single yellow stripe of the handrail snaking upwards to a closed, looming archway. This, she realized with a start, was approximately where the rooftop entrance might have been.

"...Is this it?" She ventured.

"I think so."

"We should turn back," Morgana interjected, "We've secured a route now, so -"

"No. We - we should go in," Shiho stared up at the arch. Like the one down on the first floor, it seemed too big to fit in the claustrophobic hallway. A poster haphazardly stapled against the stone brightly proclaimed, once more, _keep your eyes closed!_

"What?!" Morgana hissed.

"I mean it! I just, have this feeling, if we don't go in…" Shiho bit her bottom lip, unable to articulate the feeling of _if we don't do this now, something bad will happen,_ "well, I dunno what. But we should go in."

"It's definitely a trap! Just look at it!"

"Well - maybe!"

Akira cast a long look at her, only partially decipherable from behind the mask, before he nodded, "It's up to you."

Shiho threw her full weight against the door, straining as the heavy white stone groaned in protest before slowly pushing through with a long _creak_. The air was thicker, now, heavy with the smell of old seawaves mingling with the rotting stone. Through the now-empty door, she peered onto the empty rooftop. Scattered chairs circled around a rusty desk, seated next to empty planters, the soil rotting and empty from neglect. A fine mist clung to the floor and obscured the horizon beyond, though Shiho was sure there was nothing but the empty ocean and the lone drawbridge out.

"This is definitely a trap," Morgana whispered.

"Ak - Joker! Get back here!'

"It's this fog," Joker said, "that's the presence I was feeling."

The door flung shut behind them with a decisive _thud,_ casting a few more pebbles to shake loose from the archway and trapping them. The fog rose higher and thicker, filling Shiho's vision faster than she could wave it away. Akira's eyes gleamed crimson against the dense fog, his coat striking a silhouette even through the haze. 

"Who's there?!" Shiho yelled, limply grasping onto the grip of her hammer. (Like that was going to do anything, what was she gonna do? Hit the air?) "We can see you!" She lied.

And, as if someone had flicked a switch, the fog dissipated, masses of white coalescing into a lone figure that stood at the brink of the rooftop.

Someone staring directly at them.

Someone who looked just like her.

Shiho had heard, briefly, about the first Palace the Phantom Thieves had infiltrated. About the other Ann, the paper-thin, yellow-eyed facsimile of the fiery girl she loved so much, twisted by Kamoshida's cognition into something that had truly made her want to vomit. That had made the other thieves comfortable too, from Akira and Ryuji's expressions during their recounting.

Shiho had wondered, too, about who else lay in the depths of Kamoshida's cognition.

About another doppelganger.

"A shadow!" Morgana yelled, preparing his slingshot. Joker squeezes his dagger a little tighter, but bit back the order to attack.

She didn't look like what she expected.

The Shadow was draped in white cloth like a Greek statue of old, yet dotted up and down her exposed arms and face with deep purple bruises. She wore a knee guard on her left leg like a gladiator, the thick protective fabric now battered and worn beyond use.

 _"So you came back,"_ She whispered.

It was so familiar but off, with an echoing cadence like it was being played from a cheap speaker and pressed through a dozen different filters. It was wrong, and it was vacant, and it so, so _familiar._

_The courtyard of Shujin looks so far from this high. It'll be over in a second, just one step, and then you're finally free. It'll be easy.  
_

_You just need to -_

Shiho had never really liked the sound of her own voice.

 _"I was wondering if you would show up again. If you had abandoned me forever in pursuit of your ruse,"_ The shadow spoke slowly, quietly. Vacantly.

She stepped backwards, eyeing the gleam in Akira's eyes and the tension in his form, a bow string wound up and ready to release, "I don't know what you're talking about. Who - who are you?"

The rain pounded against the rooftop, slicking the stained marble with dirty gray water. The protective grating, already crumbling and warped, rattled with the storm and threatened to collapse. 

_"_ ... _Don't try and pretend."_

Up close, Shiho could see that it was wearing the same pair of ratty white sneakers she'd thrown away a year ago, _"Are you planning on running away again?"_ it grasped onto her arms, hands cold and clammy, pressing harder and harder against her skin, the decaying scent of seaweed clogging Shiho's senses with inescapable dread.

"I don't -" Shiho choked out.

"Stay away from her," Akira warned, a low threat humming behind each word, but the shadow pushed him aside with ease, stepping even closer to Shiho. She could feel an icy chill from its breath as it shoved itself in front of her.

 _"You know what's really true. We were always doomed. And if any of our friends knew it they'd leave us in a_ **_second_** _, because what's the point of being around a hopeless case? You'll just drag everyone down, like you've always done. Like you did with everyone, like you do with_ **_Ann_ ** _-"_

The saltwater sloshed in the bottoms of her shoes, tangled knots of barely-alive plantlife clinging to the soles and threatening to pull her even further down.

"That's - that's not -!" Shiho protested. She _was_ better now. It _was_ over. She had stood on that roof and looked down with Ann and Akira and they were _fine._

"Shiho! Don't listen to her!"

She was better, she had to be. 

She had -

_She was -_

_"We'll always be like this,"_ the fake Shiho muttered. Its voice was a whisper reverberating with the whipping winds, a commandment to the empty world, " _You've just been faking otherwise, and there's no point. I know it, and you know it, because I'm_ **_you_** _."_

"That's not true!" It _couldn't_ be true. _She wouldn't let it,_ Shiho gasped out from the hot bile in her throat.

Shiho wrestled the thing away with all the strength she could muster, pushing down her yellow-eyed doppelganger. It collapsed to the ground with a dull thud, crashing like the filthy gray waves around them. She gasped for air, but the seaspray had permeated the atmosphere with a heavy, cold humidity.

**"You're not me!"**

It slowly turned its head, dark hair brushing aside to reveal a yellow eye glowing in malicious resignation.

For a moment, silence.

And then the sky shattered.

The ground below the trio began to shake, slow at first but growing faster and harder as icy pellets of rain lashed against the earth and sea, clawing against her exposed arms and across the barnacle-encrusted radiator she clung onto to slow her fall. The winds so thick and pungent Shiho could barely breathe, whipping against her skin with a screaming lash as she desperately clutched onto the crumbling chain link fence. Galewinds shoot from the body of the shadow, rotten hands that stink of sea salt and bile wrapping around its form and pulling it deeper, warping its form into - _into -_

A vaguely humanoid form teetered on the edge of a rotting ship with a single foot, ribboned hands pressed together in a painful prayer, the other leg angled precariously above the air. The sails behind its featureless, bandaged face twisted and cracked with echoes of a nightmare. Swarming hands grasped onto the figure's legs, ripping and tearing the frayed edges of its white gown with a pair of sneakers swung down from the stern. Bandages and choppy waves all intermingled listlessly as the winds around them coalesced into an all-encompassing wail.

Shiho gazed up and further up at the thing that looked just like her.

It was a monster, plain and simple.

" _I am a shadow, the true self... let's put an end to this worthless act,_ " Its voice, distorted and vacant, echoed with the roaring sea.

And then it struck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this one took a while to write huh. did i include an entire scene just to try and puzzle out what a goho-m is? yes. was it necessary? also yes. no further questions.
> 
> so this is a fanfiction and I don't have access to some of the cool storytelling mechanics that video games offer so I'll just tell you this here - the name Shiho's dungeon is "the Deep Blue Sea."
> 
> Thanks for reading so far, please leave a comment if you enjoyed! Come find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/arisqto) or on tumblr.


	4. run-up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes reach the deep end.

"Shiho, stay back!" Akira dashed in front of Shiho, already bent into a fighting stance with one hand reaching up to his mask. Shiho stumbled back to her feet, clutching onto a rusty metal desk as the world around her tremors.

Blue fire engulfed Akira's face as a spectral horned woman manifested behind him, " _Ishtar!_ "

A bolt of lighting crashed down on the sinking roof. The clutter around them rattles dangerously when the encroaching smell of ozone hits, illuminating the monster's silhouette against the waves.

"It resists electricity!" Morgana yelled as Joker dodged another blast of wind, backflipping away as an earthen hand ribboned from the ground in a swirl of sodden mud and seaspray to grab his ankle and just barely missed.

He switched Personas again, ripping away his mask and watching as a pillar of flame erupt from the ground, barely scraping the shadow as it rocked back and forth, _"Surt!"_

Joker's coattails lash against his face with the wind, trails of fire whipping around him and hissing into useless mist as soon as they make contact.

 _"Arsene!_ "

Somehow, Shiho hadn't dropped it in the chaos. Flung up against the railings, she braced close to the rooftop floor and pushed forward, against the rain and wind inching closer and closer to the monster.

It wailed once more as Joker cast a warbling, neon-colored spell at the thing's sails, though it showed no signs of stopping its assault even as the rings connected.

Shiho lifted the hammer up into the air, bracing her knees as far down as she could, and slammed it into the monster's side. The chains collapsed in a single blow and crumbled into a fine black dust like charcoal, evaporating into the winds.

"What…?"

"Physical! It's weak to physical!" Mona called out with a snap of his slingshot, the pellet blasting a ragged hole through the center of the already-torn sails.

 _"Yoshitsune!_ " The armored specter behind Joker brandished a massive blade and struck down.

Shiho swung her hammer down again and again, pretending not to hear her own distorted wailing. The mast, the halliards, the braces, all fragmenting and tumbling into ash without resistance.

The ribboned form that teetered from the sails was alone, the wooden brace enveloping its knee and tied it to the sails now broken into rotten splintered bits that sent it crashing down to the roof.

Yoshitsune vanished into Joker's mask and he stepped forward, hand hovering over his holster as Shiho and Mona surrounded it. 

The storm beat ceaselessly, soaking her hair against her face and wrapping around like a chokehold. The waves crept up the walls and threatened to sink the school, the shadow, and all of them completely. 

"We - we should go. We need to find a way out of here," Shiho heaved.

Joker began to speak, "Shiho, we -"

The shadow, its robes draped into the too-deep puddles and staining them a muddy gray, lay unmoving in front of her. It made no sound as Shiho stepped forward, her sneakers sunk into the steadily rising water, its face still limply pressed against the drowning concrete.

"We should leave," Shiho muttered, looking downwards at the shadow.

"I'm not sure if we can. The exit's been blocked off," Joker gesticulated towards the edge; the hasty drawbridge that had let them escape the night before had vanished beneath the depths of the flood. 

The shadow whispered something, so quiet Shiho barely even caught its existence.

"What?"

_"We... can't leave… we'll always be like this…"_

"You trapped us here, now let us out!" Shiho demanded, stomping downwards and hardly noticing that the rumble beneath her feet was not her own. 

_"...I'm not…"_

"Stop lying! Where's the exit?!" 

_"Don't… try and pretend…"_ it wailed. The cracks grew wider and wider while the ground shook even more violently than before.

Joker's eyes widen in red, "Shiho, there's something else -"

 _Something else_ broke the surface of the water and charged forward.

_"We were always doomed."_

The first thing that Shiho saw was its tongue. It whipped back and forth with the crest of the waves, scales rippling out from its curved ram's horns clawing from the side of its lizard-like face, charging forward on cloven fins and and two-pronged tail that beat ceaselessly against the sea, tearing the tempest apart and shrieking with euphoria.

And its eyes -

Its maw opened wide with unbridled, gleeful desire as it reached forward and grabbed Shiho's shadow.

_Oh._

Shiho had seen its face before, hadn't she?

Her shadow's shipwrecked body crumpled under the monster's claws. The paper-thin construction of its berserk form, already torn and beaten by its previous fight, dissipated as soon as the monster's dripping claws made contact.

Before her shadow vanished beneath the surface, Shiho could make out a flash yellow-eyed terror and recognition behind the remaining ribbons.

The sea monster crashed underneath the surface, reemerging only seconds later with a earth-shattering, gleeful howl of lust. Spit mingled with the raging froth of the sea, the raging waters of the flood storming ever higher.

"Joker, what's the plan?!" Mona's panic rose above the water.

His eyes glint again, a spark of red against the seas of gray and dismal blue, "If Cetus kills her -"

"Cetus?"

"The sea monster. The name's not important, we need to get Shiho's shadow. Or else. Well."

Shiho does not want to guess what'll happen next, but her imagination fills in the gaps anyway. Her shadow's body lay crumpled upon a wet-slicked stone, far in the distance while Cetus rammed its spiked spines through the ravaged pillars across the waves. Its tongue, gaping and hollow, lapped up the foul waters and spun them upwards with the curtain of hail beat down upon them.

"I'll go."

"What?!" Akira and Mona chorus.

"I can swim! The two of you can distract that thing!" 

"Are you sure?" Akira stared. Through the domino mask she sees a steely gaze not unlike Lavenza's judgement.

_"Yes."_

"Okay. Mona, you heard the plan," Joker's pistol was out in a flash of platinum, "Use the pillars, keep jumping around - _don't_ let it see Shiho. Either of them."

Mona nodded.

Akira spun his grappling hook and launched himself to one of the pillars as Mona scurried up one marble wire to another, both flickering shadows gone in an instant.

Shiho rolled up her sweater, for all the good it did her, kicking off her now-drenched sneakers behind her. 

She took a deep, cold breath, as clear as she could get in the storm -

\- and jumped in.

The water was as cold and choppy as anyone would expect in a cognitive hell world, but she pushed onward regardless. The waves insisted on battering her at every turn, soaking her down to the bone with a knife-like chill.

Tossed side to side, Shiho fought against the storm to inch towards the lurking rock.

"Come - _on -!"_ Her hands grasped the slippery surface, limply pulling herself up onto the rocks. She took a long, heaving breath and spat salt water against the stone. The winds smacked her freezing hair against her clammy face. But it wasn't over yet.

Her shadow was chained down against the pillar, torn white sleeves exposing the athletic gear beneath.

Shiho's hands were mangled messes as she yanked and tugged at the rope, bloody and burning from the seaspray. Her shadow self slumped in heavy resignation, gazing up at her with that same empty stare and sending another flare of anger through Shiho's chest.

 _"It's all over…"_ The shadow moaned.

"Will you shut up already?!" Her voice is a desperate screech, " _You're_ the reason I jumped! All you do, all you've ever done is just ruin everything I've worked for!"

The waves crash furiously against them, staining the shattered pillar beneath her aching, drenched body.

 _"...I'm not,"_ It whispered, barely audible.

"What?" Shiho spat back.

 _"I'm not the reason,"_ she whispered again. And, with her one freed hand, pointed at the writhing sea, _"You know the reason."_

* * *

Cetus roared, sending folds of choppy waves across the ocean and crashing against the few standing structures. Three stood the tallest, encircling the arena Cetus had trapped the thieves under, her shadow tied to the northmost obelisk. Akira, a blur of black and red jumped from pillar to pillar brandishing knives and magic, flinging bursts of inky flares that bounced off Cetus' scales.

Another galewind from the monster sent them sliding backwards, bracing against the gales with one hand grasping onto the chains. One arm held above her face, she turned to her shadow.

 _"Help me!_ "

The shadow, eyes wide, stared at Shiho.

And nodded.

The chains were heavy and slippery, freezing cloth slipping through the grasp as they wrap it against the sides and tug it around the pillar, heaving against the cords.

"Joker, over here!"

Joker and Morgana appeared and vanished in dual flashes of black before Cetus could even register their movement, each grabbing the two ends of the rope. Joker twirled off the side of the pillar, shooting his grappling hook and, miraculously, grasping onto the slippery rock. The monster aimed its bulging eyes on him, mouth opening wide as it poses to strike. He snaked around the trio of columns, cable in one hand and hook in the other.

They formed a taut and twisted net, snaking from the sides, halfway-encircling Cetus all while the monster chases after the thief.

"Akira! Bring it to the center!" Shiho screamed and hoped it would reach him, "In three!"

Shiho could not see, the whipping spray of brine stinging her eyes.

_Come on, Suzui, come on -_

"Two!"

Joker, nearly sent toppling down into the waves with the force of the wind, clung to the side of the false Shujin with nothing but determination and stupid luck alone.

Shiho's hand trembled while she resisted the urge to close her eyes as Cetus drew closer and closer, _come on, Suzui, what would Ann do?!_ Her grip tightened. Her shadow followed suit.

_"Now!"_

Shiho and her shadow pushed _down,_ pressing their weight and agony as far as they possibly can. The weakened foundation of the pillar snaps, and as one goes down, the others follow.

Through the tempest of wreckage and seafoam flinging her vision into disarray, a glimpse of a pillar crashing down through Cetus' torso. A gnashing of teeth and licentious, unsatisfied tongue sent crumbling into pieces. Its curved horns shattered into bits of marble bone and flung across the horizon in every which way, striking the remaining pillars and tearing them down in its wake.

Shiho flung herself downward into the sea, grabbing to her shadow's arm and pulling it down with her as the obelisk shattered.

A piercing, final scream of agony echoed against the sky, and, then.

The ocean ceased to rise.

* * *

Akira, Shiho, and Morgana stood silently on the watery roof of the other-Shujin. Of _Shiho's_ Shujin. She couldn't see the sky, her horizon still covered in a light gray mist, but through the heavy cover some light peaked through in patchy splotches across the rooftop.

The water receded, slowly, but the flood remained. Shiho's socks were completely soaked through, and Akira's hair looks more like a black towel slapped on top of his head than his carefully-manicured bedhead. It didn't suit the gentleman thief look at all.

And the Shadow…

She stood at the edge of the flooded roof, looking down at her receding reflection. Her draping robes, already stained and ripped, were in an even worse state, revealing the worn black exercise gear beneath. The deep purple bruises lining her skin, the ones Shiho can recall with a gut-churning accuracy, were even more prominent against her shadow.

"...Hey."

She looked back.

Shiho curled her fingers in her palm, feeling the cold, wrinkled skin gained from too much time in the water. Any coherent thought she _might_ have once possessed had been washed away with the storm and the expression on her face, "...I'm sorry."

 _"Why?"_ The words come out barely louder than a whisper.

"You were right," Her mouth feels heavy, the taste of sea salt weighing down her lips, but Shiho continued, "About lying. I've been pretending that I was better, this whole time. I was afraid that - that I'd just wasted everyone's time, everyone's work. I felt horrible every time I thought about it, so I pushed it away. Kept acting like I was fine."

"But - I'm - I'm not -" Hot, embarrassing tears spilled down her cheeks, the same ones trickling down her shadow's face, "It's not! _Kamoshida_ , he took _everything_ from me! I can't - can't go back - to how everything was, no - no matter how much I..."

She felt the weight of a hand on her shoulder and looked back up at bright yellow eyes, _"And that scares you."_

"...I have friends who'll support me, no matter what. I'm not a failure... _we're_ not a failure. It wasn't our fault. I know that now, and you do too, right?" Shiho looked up, "I knew it all along. Because I'm you... and you're me."

Her watery yellow eyes shone.

Shiho faced forward into the embracing light. The glow reflects off of Akira and Morgana's incredulous gazes, filling the room with a warm luster. From the depths of her soul, a card unfolds in front of Shiho's eyes with a surging, shining blue:

_Adjustment._

Shiho crushed the card in her palm, the sound of shattering glass accompanying her testament to the wind. 

_"Helena!_ "

It's a vaguely humanoid figure, with long, braided black hair that twists and twirls, cloth crown adorning the top of its head. Long robes billow across her like the tides, one of her long sleeves holding a long staff with a deadly spiked ball, fangs bared with an open maw, ribboned to one end of the staff.

Akira smirked, without malice and with a gleam in his eyes, "Nice work."

* * *

_The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest..._

* * *

legal teen activities

**ORACLE**

uh ok so nobody freak out but im freaking out right now

**SKULL**

somethin wrong?

**ORACLE**

i cant get in contact w joker and his signals gone

**QUEEN**

Calm down, I'm sure he just forgot to charge his phone.

**ORACLE**

well thats what i thought as well but its been hours and NO RESPONSE

its GONE GONE

like he dropped off the face of the planet gone

**ORACLE**

what if hes been kidnapped

**QUEEN**

No need to catastrophize. I'm sure he's okay.

**NOIR**

He's our leader, after all!

**SKULL**

yea he probably just switched his phone into airplane mode and forgot

**PANTHER**

he's probably with shiho! i'll text her and see

**ORACLE**

ok

okay

**ORACLE**

any word

**PANTHER**

um

shiho isn't responding

hang on i'll call her

**SKULL**

maybe theyre both busy

**PANTHER**

she didn't pick up

**QUEEN**

They're probably both asleep.

**ORACLE**

at 7pm on a wednesday in INABA

with BOTH of their phones dead?!

Akira's home line didn't pick up as well...

**SKULL**

next trains tmrw morning at 5a i can see if anythings wrong

**PANTHER**

i'll cover tickets

**QUEEN**

Everyone calm down. Nobody is taking the train.

**SKULL**

oh

**QUEEN**

We'll wait until tomorrow, and if he's still not online then we'll go.

Understood?

**NOIR**

Understood.

**SKULL**

got it

**ORACLE**

ok

* * *

**NOIR**

You should go to sleep, Futaba-chan.

**ORACLE**

cant

**NOIR**

I'm sure they're alright. Joker is our leader, after all!

**NOIR**

Do you need someone to keep you company? I have some teas that help with sleep.

**ORACLE**

no dont do that

ill

go to bed now

* * *

**SKULL**

mornin. any news?

**QUEEN**

Not yet. Though that's not necessarily a cause for concern.

**SKULL**

it kinda is

**QUEEN**

You are not missing school for this.

**SKULL**

cmon akiras more important than missin a couple days!

**QUEEN**

Yes, but we still need to figure out what's going on.

**JOKER**

Hey

**ORACLE**

AKIRA

**NOIR**

Joker!

**ORACLE**

WTF HAPPENED YOU BIG ASSHOLE WE WERE SO WORRIED

**JOKER**

Can't a guy drop off the grid for six+ hours these days? What a world.

**SKULL**

oh man i was freaking out the hell happened

**PANTHER**

you're okay!!!!

**FOX**

What happened?

**JOKER**

Well

Okay, it's kind of a long story. We're okay though.

but first

**JOKER added SHIHO SUZUI.**

**JOKER**

Everyone promise not to freak out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know writers who use subtlety and they're cowards. ham fisted metaphors ONLY. anyway I think Shiho deserved to pummel the shit out of k*moshida at least once.
> 
> Anyway. speaking of ham fisted metaphors - Shiho's boss battle! Shiho's boss fight is based on the myth of Cetus and Andromeda. The roles of Perseus and Andromeda would theoretically oscillate between Shiho and Ann, but ultimately Shiho saves her own shadow.
> 
> I had a lot of trouble deciding what Shiho's Persona should be. I must've had like. Eight different options at some point (Andromeda, Timocleia, Helen of Troy, Jeanne d'Arc, Medusa, even Kushinada-hime.) Literally it was up to the last minute as to who I picked, between Helena, Andromeda, or Medusa. I went with Helena eventually. (I was hesitant because I know other fic writers have used Helena as her Persona before, and I didn't want to seem like I was copying or anything, and I really love T Ban's works. I can change it if you'd like!)
> 
> Um... anyway. I hope you enjoyed! There's a little more coming up for this particular fic, and then something else beyond that, if all goes well. If you enjoyed, please leave a comment or come talk to me on twitter/tumblr, and thank you for reading.


	5. drawback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An aftermath, where the author struggles with HTML long enough that this briefly becomes a chatfic.

**JOKER**

So, that's basically the gist of it.

**SKULL**

you toppled a PILLAR??????

**SHIHO**

three pillars, actually!

**SKULL**

bro

that is the coolest effin thing ive ever heard

**JOKER**

Yeah it was cool as hell

**FOX**

That sounds like an ordeal

I'm glad you three managed to survive unscathed

Though it does raise some concerns regarding why this place exists in the first place

We should consider our next move carefully....................slime man

**FOX**

I did not mean to write " slime man " .

Futaba did something to my phone

**SKULL**

dude its just in settings

**FOX**

She has done something more permanent....................slime man

Futaba

**ORACLE**

:)

**PANTHER**

SHIHOOOOOO

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

**ORACLE**

you need a codename!!

**SHIHO**

aren't you disbanded?

**JOKER**

As the former leader of the Phantom Thieves, I declare that we're getting back together to investigate the TV-verse. And declare that you're our newest member.

**NOIR**

Hooray!

**SKULL**

once a phantom theif always a phantom theif!! thats what i always say

**JOKER**

me shoplifting candy from the junes checkout

**SKULL**

BRO STOP DOING THAT

**JOKER**

why won't you support me </3

**SKULL**

WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

**FOX**

Isn't it " thief " ?

**JOKER**

Thceif

**ORACLE**

back to code names!!

**SKULL**

what about em

**PANTHER**

a code name! she needs a code name

**JOKER**

Bully

**SHIHO**

i'm gonna reach behind me and strangle you

**JOKER**

Akirahater

**SKULL**

whats ur outfit look like

**SHIHO**

i don't have one

**SKULL**

bruh that sucks

**SHIHO**

it's fine i don't wanna look like a clown

akira just threw an eraser at my head

how far the leader of the mighty phantom thieves has fallen

**JOKER**

I do not look like a clown

**SHIHO**

ok joker

* * *

**QUEEN**

Akira.

I didn't want to confront you in front of everyone else but…

What you did was seriously irresponsible. You should have told us about this TV Metaverse _before_ you jumped in.

Especially with a non-Persona user.

**JOKER**

Yeah, I know.

It was pretty stupid in hindsight.

**QUEEN**

I know you probably wanted to stop anything before it escalated, but, please.

Let us know next time.

**JOKER**

I will. I'm sorry.

That's our Fist of the Phantom Star. Telling it like it is.

**QUEEN**

Stop that.

* * *

**RYUJI**

[IMG_5136.png]

she literally just said she loves you

**SHIHO**

shut up

if i have to go thru one more of this crap im gonna go crazy

**SHIHO**

ann says she loves things all the time! like

sweets and stuff

**RYUJI**

ITSNOT THE SAME THING AND YOU KNOW IT

* * *

**FOX**

Break is coming up soon, perhaps we should visit Inaba rather than what we initially planned

**NOIR**

I think that's a good idea! We should look into this TV-Metaverse as well.

MetaTV?

**PANTHER**

aughhh i wanted to show shiho this new parfait place that opened up

hey ryuji wanna go

**SKULL**

are you gonna make me pay again

**PANTHER**

yes!

**SKULL**

im good

**SHIHO**

it's ok you'll just need to bring one from tokyo directly

**PANTHER**

i know you're joking but i do have a cooler

**SKULL**

so were visiting inaba? i gotta ask my mom first but shell probably be cool with it

**ORACLE**

awww sojiro's gonna be sad

don't let him know i'm telling you this but he ordered this fancy coffee press especially to test it out with you

**JOKER**

Well now I feel bad.

**ORACLE**

guess you gotta make up for it by visiting us allllll of golden week and summer!

**PANTHER**

doesn't boss have an RV? do you think makoto could drive us to inaba like last time?

**QUEEN**

One suitcase each.

**SKULL**

akira your place has toothpaste right

**FOX**

I need your opinion, then. Would you consider pastels or gouache more portable

**NOIR**

Pastels, definitely!

**JOKER**

We actually don't have toothpaste in the country. The very concept is foreign to us.

**SHIHO**

i bring my toothpaste to yasogami and the students scatter like cockroaches

**JOKER**

We don't even have indoor plumbing. It's just a ditch that everyone has to share

**SKULL**

very funny

**JOKER**

We'll be here all week

**SHIHO**

am i the tsukkomi or the boke

**JOKER**

OBVIOUSLY I'm the boke

**FOX**

Does the one suitcase rule extend to swords ?

**QUEEN**

It extends to all weaponry.

**NOIR**

Does anyone have extra space for the Yagurushi?

**FOX**

Ah, that makes things a little more complicated....................slime man

Why

**ORACLE**

....................slime man

**SKULL**

....................slime man

**JOKER**

....................slime man

* * *

**ANN**

are you still up?

**SHIHO**

just hanging up all my laundry then i'm going to bed

my mom thinks me and akira jumped in the flood plains again

**ANN**

again...?

**SHIHO**

in our defense it was REALLY humid out the first time

**ANN**

pls tell me my hoodie didnt get stained

**SHIHO**

um i think you mean MY hoodie

**ANN**

hah hah

**SHIHO**

well i think it'll be okay. it didn't get ripped or anything

i'm just glad my mom didn't notice the salt smell

**SHIHO**

you really fought stuff like that every day?

the whole time i thought it was gonna throw up

i don't think akira flinched even once

well it's easy to be more confident when you can blast fireballs with your mind

**SHIHO**

lol

**ANN**

you're really brave, you know that?

probably the bravest person i know

more than metaverse stuff and personas you

whenever i was scared i would just think about you, and everything you did

**ANN**

i'm sorry i can't be there in inaba

and that i couldn't be there for that fight

**SHIHO**

don't apologize for something like that

it's not like we have any control over stuff like that

**ANN**

i don't think akira ever told anyone else this but, right at our last fight i was totally ready to give up

but all he had to do was remind me of you, and i was all ready to go

**SHIHO**

that's really weird

**ANN**

huh???

**SHIHO**

cause i kept thinking about what you would do

**SHIHO**

you're always gonna be a part of my life, ann

and now that i've got a persona we can blast fireballs with our brains together!

**ANN**

you do fire as well?

**SHIHO**

no it's like. sparkles or whatever

i think akira called it "bless"

**ANN**

oh cool!!

**SHIHO**

does this mean i have to become a nun

**ANN**

yes actually. i've now become a pyromaniac because of my elemental affinity

**SHIHO**

this is so sad

* * *

**PARTNER**

heyyy partner!!! you awake?

**YU**

I am. Not for much longer, though.

Nice icon, by the way.

**PARTNER**

ughh dont talk about it. chie got ted in it aswell 

prty sure he switches it when im asleep -_-

u still wrking on tht essay?

**YU**

Finals are coming up soon, so I figured I should get this done earlier before it all piles up.

**PARTNER**

ovrachiever

ur schools got crzy short vacations tho

**YU**

I know, but I actually like this professor. I don't want to disappoint her.

How's everyone doing?

**PARTNER**

same as always

naoto might b here aswell but he ws complaining abt a sudden case or w/e 2 kanji

oh teds prbly planning smth again tho he thinks its a big secret i can tell

he was lking @ the tv weird my WHOLE SHIFT

**YU**

Last time was pretty fun, though.

**PARTNER**

well its not fun 2 clean up glitter & frosting n the elctrncs aisle!! specially when u gotta explain HOW it got there

i dont even kno where he got tht pinata

**PARTNER**

i wont keep u from ur boring essay any lngr

ttyl

**YU**

Talk to you later. :-)

* * *

**PARTNER**

ummm hey prtnr

do u think u might b able 2 come home a lttle sooner?

**YU**

What's wrong?

* * *

The room that Akira woke up in was decidedly not his own.

It was, however, not a prison cell, though, which was a nice change of pace.

"Welcome back," Igor smiles, "I'm sure you have many questions, but please first take a moment to readjust yourself. It's been quite a while since you've exerted yourself so."

Igor was right. Even in the Velvet Room, exhaustion carried over from reality. He looked down to see surprisingly, he wasn't in a prison uniform or his Phantom Thief attire, just the clothes he fell asleep in. As for the rest of the room...

Instead of a prison, the Velvet Room circled around Igor's desk in the center, light streaming through the large glass windows that made up most of the walls. The sound of the sea created a gentle rhythmic breaking against shores far below. The ocean was different than Shiho's turbulent palace, though somehow, Akira thought, it felt familiar. 

"Good to be back."

"It is good to see you again as well, Trickster," Compendium tucked underneath one arm, Lavenza stood next to Igor looking exactly the same as when he had last seen her. 

"You've redecorated."

"It is certainly better than the previous manifestation, though we have little control over what form it takes," A faint smile crested her face.

"Do you still have the guillotines and stuff? Because if you're not using them I wouldn't mind taking them off your hands."

The faint smile became a smirk, "I'm afraid that I have my own use for that equipment. It is proprietary, after all."

Akira wasn't sure where Lavenza kept her chainsaw, and hadn't exactly ever felt so inclined to find out. Despite the visual overhaul, some aspects were the same. A piano played, a solo voice sung, constant as always. And the windows, curtained with pulled-back velvet, gazed out into an astral void.

"The intruder's scars will fade more with time, but the Room has returned to its true state, taking form to best aid our guests on their journey." Lavenza spoke.

"So, a lighthouse? That's not exactly what I expected," If Akira had been forced to guess the shape of his own heart, 'lighthouse' was probably near the lower half the list, but it was still higher than 'prison.'

Lavenza went quiet, and that alone set Akira sitting up a little straighter. When she spoke again, there was a apprehension to her voice "There are some unique circumstances regarding the state of the room."

"...Like what?"

"In short, you are no longer our most current guest. We will continue to offer our services to you, as we do for all of our previous visitors. However, we are in the midst of welcoming someone who has not yet completed their journey."

Akira looked from the turbulent seas, the nervous shuffling of Lavenza's hands. Waves of light passed across the room as the lantern circled through the gallery. His shadow drew long and low against the blue carpet as a beam shone across his face.

"The silhouette in the TV, that first night. That... wasn't Shiho, was it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i never said WHO was "the mysterious figure on the TV screen with a familiar face"
> 
> Thanks for reading _as seen on tv_ turns out this fic (or fic series, I guess) is gonna be a bit longer than I originally planned. I hope you enjoyed this "arc" and are looking forward for the next part
> 
> Our next destination: the empty manor!


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